Mike Andes says business owners get blind to their own flaws because they're too close to the work. He uses his company Augusta as an example of how to intentionally hunt for problems, and recommends stepping back or getting outside feedback from competitors and coaches to see what you're missing.
Another kind of myth or thing that I see commonly that businesses that are going out of business is being critical of what you built. Without bias. It's very, very, very easy to look at your business and you know everything about it and you built it and you love it. And just like the children, they're the best and they're the brightest and they're the smartest and they're the fastest and they talk earlier than every other child and you think that your business is the same way. It's very easy trap to fall into. This is the number one reason why I highly encourage you to either talk to competitors or come to events like this. You get challenged on everything in their business because then you start looking at your business as a third party and you looking on it and critiquing it. All right, to. The advantage of stepping out of day to day operations as an owner is now when you show up at the business, you don't know all the.
Exactly those things. You don't know all of those pieces in the customer's name and the addresses and the price. You don't know any of that. What you're doing as the owner now coming in is like, okay, this is the business. Where can it improve? Where can it get better? You're looking for efficiencies and where do the flaws in the company, where are things falling apart? The sooner you get to that level and you don't have to necessarily be out of the business. That's a huge aspect. A positive thing about being away from the company on a day to day operational level is that it's easier to do that. The sooner you're able to judge your business and critique it without bias of it being yours, the sooner you'll be able to start picking up flaws and issues. So like yesterday you heard Lee say it, I'm sure Liz will probably say it today, how like my thing gets on everyone's nerves is I come in and I break things apart. So I'll come in and I'll be like, hey, let's try this. I'll come in and I'll be like, this isn't working. Do this. And that is me critiquing the business, right? Like if I was passive about it and I just love my company and love Augusta and the brand and what it's doing, I'd just be like, I'd always just be like, it's so positive and so good. But I'm always looking at like, I am Augusta's worst critic. No one will be able to Pick holes in Augusta as much as I am or will do. So, like, I know we're good at certain things, but I can see every single flaw, every single issue. And that's my job now, to step back and critique the business. What most owners do that I see going out of business, they're literally telling me how great their company is, how they're better than other competitors, how they care about their customers, how they do great quality work, how they're competitively priced, how their team is so great. And I'm left with the question, so why are you going out of business? If you're going out of business and you're failing, there's something wrong. And the number one reason is you've been blind to all the issues. And so when I see people going out of business almost all the time, none of them, very rarely are they either humble enough or knowledgeable enough to realize where all the flaws are in their business, because they come blind to all those issues because they're baby. And they just think it's the best thing in the world. They talk about all their competitors and all their guys, and they all smoke, and they're all doing this on the job. And my guys are working hard, and I'm like, okay, why are you failing? And a lot of times they're just completely blind to what the flaws in their business are. And that's the. Like, I highly encourage you, whether it be a coach or literally just someone else here to be.
Accountable to. Like, let them pick apart your business. It's the best thing in the world. I love people coming, drive, ticket things. Like, I can learn something from that. I got from him yesterday. I'm gonna think about putting the cell phone mounts on trucks, Right? He just mentioned it really quick, but right away I'm like, never thought about that. So, like, being open to criticism is extremely important in our businesses. What happens in this industry is all your competitors, you block them out, and you're like, I'm the best. I'm so good. And you just completely blind yourself, like we talked about the first night, to everything you need to improve in the business.
